


Reunited

by sarahgirl1998



Category: Happy Tree Friends
Genre: Adorable, Comedy, Cute, Family, Gen, Heartwarming, Humor, Mother-Daughter Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:27:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26815834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahgirl1998/pseuds/sarahgirl1998
Summary: Flaky's wish to never live alone again finally comes true - and the person who fulfills the wish leads to an extremely heartwarming, feel-good story.





	Reunited

Flaky had been giving this a lot of thought, but only now had she come to a conclusion. She didn't want to live by herself anymore. She'd been living alone for quite a few years, but it wasn't until recently did she realize how much of a mistake it was.

When she was alone, thoughts that made her feel scared came to her. She felt like at any moment, something bad could happen to her or her friends, or even to Tree Friends she didn't know. What she needed was someone to reassure her that everything would be okay. It didn't matter how often they did it, but at least once a day would do.

The only problem was that all of Flaky's friends already had places to live.

Giggles lived with her mom, Pop and Cub lived together with the former looking after the latter, and the raccoons had their own apartment. Everyone else, however - Cuddles, Toothy, Petunia, Nutty, Lumpy, Sniffles, Handy, Russell, The Mole, Mime, Cro-Marmot, Flippy, Splendid and Lammy - had their own homes. Flaky wasn't sure she could find a way to solve her little problem.

Fortunately, she didn't have to. Rather, the solution came to her.

It was a lovely Saturday afternoon, and Flaky had just gotten back from her part time job. She was a barista at the local coffee shop, but she had finished all of her work until Monday. Now she was on the couch in her living room, her smartphone in her hands. Flaky always took extra care not to accidentally tap any scary or creepy-looking images whenever she used her phone. On the plus side, that was highly unlikely; she was browsing some videos of kittens and cats on YouTube.

While she was watching one of them, however, the doorbell rang. Flaky winced with a brief gasp as the two notes caught her off-guard. But then she calmed down; there was just someone at the door. Flaky turned the screen off on her phone, then put it in her pocket. She stepped off the couch and made her way to the front door. Once she'd gotten close enough, she placed her hand on the doorknob, turned it, and pulled it open as slowly as she could.

The person at the door wasn't anyone Flaky recognized. But it was a Tree Friend that looked exactly like her - it was a female, red porcupine. Unlike Flaky, however, this one was a bit taller than her, had eyelashes, and was wearing a dress that was pink in color.

"Hello, Flaky," the guest greeted her in a sweet, mature voice.

Flaky stood where she was, eyes wide and pupils small with disbelief. How did this other porcupine know her name? She couldn't remember any time in the past where they'd met before...

"Um, hello," Flaky replied, trying not to sound awkward. It wasn't working, but the other porcupine giggled in response. At least she didn't seem to mind. "I... don't think I, um..."

"It's alright, darling," said the other porcupine. "I'm oh-so-happy to see you again."

"Again? What are you...?"

Just then, Flaky's mind began to connect the dots. This unfamiliar Tree Friend looked exactly like her, had called her by her first name, then called her darling, and finally said she was happy to see her again. Could it be...?

"Yes, darling," the other porcupine replied, "I'm your mother."

Flaky couldn't help but gasp. She couldn't believe it. She was sure that she was related to this porcupine somehow, but being her daughter? That was even harder to believe. Flaky tried to say something, but it was quite hard to in her disbelief.

"O-oh, my... Y-you are...?!"

The porcupine with the dress nodded, truthfully. "I haven't seen you in ages, darling."

"I guess I haven't, either..." replied Flaky. She tried to regain herself, and then politely stepped out of the way. "Um, would you like to come in?"

"Yes, thank you." Her mother did as she was told, closing the door behind her as she did so. She looked around the inside of Flaky's house from where she stood. "Your home looks quite lovely, Flaky. You must have worked hard to get it to look like this."

"Um, thanks..." Flaky blushed a bit. "And yeah, I have."

"Well, I am impressed," said her mother.

"Would you like to see the rest of it?"

"But of course, dear."

So Flaky showed her mother every room in the house; the living room, the kitchen, the bathrooms - first the one downstairs, followed by the one upstairs, and the two bedrooms. One of them was Flaky's, but there was another one still available, to the visiting porcupine's secret happiness. After a few minutes, they returned to the living room and sat down on the couch.

"Thank you for showing me all of this, darling. And that brings me to why I came over..."

"Yeah? And what's that?" Flaky wanted to know.

Her mother took a deep breath, exhaled quietly and spoke.

"Since the day you left home," she started, "I was a bit skeptical about whether or not you'd be able to face the world on your own. Not because you were irresponsible, of course, but because of how you were afraid of almost everything."

"Yeah, well, I still am..." Flaky looked away and blushed a bit.

"That's why I decided," her mom went on, "that the best thing to do was to find where you lived and check up on you."

"Gee, Mom, that's really sweet," Flaky said with a smile. "Though I have something I'd like to say, too."

"Yes?"

"I didn't think I could take living alone anymore, either," said Flaky. "I wanted someone to live with me so they could let me know there was nothing to be afraid of. The only problem was that all my other friends already have places to live..."

She stopped there, not because she had nothing more to say, but because she saw that her mom was smiling at her. Flaky didn't seem to understand why.

"Um, Mom?"

"Flaky, darling," her mother replied, "if you'd like someone to live with you, you don't have to look any further."

Flaky just looked at her for a moment, but then smiled as well. "You mean... You're gonna...?"

"Yes, I am. I'm going to live here with you, and I'll make sure you're never home alone again."

Tears of happiness began to form in Flaky's eyes. She reached over and gave her mom a hug, and she quickly returned the favor. They kept one another in their arms for a long time. Then, when they let go, Mom noticed that Flaky's eyes were still tearing from her joy. She reached into the pocket of her dress, pulled out a white handkerchief and handed it to her.

"Thank you, Mom. Thank you so much..." Flaky said quietly, wiping her eyes cutely with it. "I'm sorry, this is the happiest day I've ever had in a long time." She wiped her nose as well, giving a few light sniffles.

"It's alright, darling. I understand," said Mom. She then stood up from the couch. "Would you like me to make you dinner?"

Flaky nodded, and then Mom made her way into the kitchen. Flaky sat where she was, wiping her eyes and nose in happiness with her mom's handkerchief. She still couldn't believe it, her wish had finally come true. She wasn't going to live alone anymore, because she'd finally reunited with her mother... whom she hadn't even remembered her for so long... If anything, this had been a miracle.

After a few minutes, by the time Flaky had stopped crying, her dinner had been ready. Flaky got up from the couch and made her way into the kitchen. She handed her mom's handkerchief back to her before she sat down, thanked her and began to eat.

"I didn't bring anything with me," Mom stated, making sure to swallow before speaking, "but it's alright. I'll return home next time you leave the house so I can bring some of my clothes here."

"Sounds good," Flaky replied.

"And speaking of leaving the house, may I ask if you have a job?" Mom then asked.

"Actually, I do," said Flaky. "I work at the coffee shop in town, from Monday to Saturday. Tomorrow's my day off."

"Oh, that's great," said Mom with a smile. "I'll start my moving plans from home to here on Monday, then."

They finished talking for the rest of their meal, and finally, Mom got up and offered to do the dishes. Flaky allowed her to, since she was a bit tired of having to do her own dishes for a while, and then made her way into the living room. She sat down on the couch, picked up the remote control and watched a couple episodes of Super Mario World.

Once Mom had finally finished doing the dishes, she went into the living room to meet up with Flaky. When she sat down on the couch, she heard the announcer on the TV say that something called Harvey Street Kids was next to be broadcast.

"Hmm, Harvey Street Kids...?" Mom wondered to herself. She then told Flaky, "I don't think I've ever seen that show..."

"It's okay, I'll tell you," Flaky said. "It's this great cartoon show about three cute girls named Audrey, Dot and Lotta."

"Those sound quite familiar," said Mom.

Flaky pulled up her smartphone and pulled up a picture of the characters she was talking about. Her mom gasped in happiness as sparkles appeared in her eyes.

"Oh, my goodness! They're adorable!"

"They sure are," Flaky replied. "They call themselves the Harvey Girls. Usually they help other kids on Harvey Street - that's where they all live. But there's a bunch of episodes about them just having fun together or doing some goofy stuff, but... yeah, it's really cute."

"Well, I'm glad you like it, darling," Mom said as Flaky put away her smartphone. "I wouldn't mind watching an episode of this show."

As if on cue, the Harvey Street Kids theme began playing on the TV. Flaky and her mother turned to start watching as soon as they heard it. And to Flaky's secret delight, when the theme song ended, the episode that began afterward was the one called "What Makes You Hic."

The two porcupines watched the entire episode; Mom couldn't help but giggle every time Audrey hiccuped. She also smiled at every one of Dot and Lotta's attempts to make her hiccups stop, from her holding her breath, to her standing on her head and trying to count to 25. Even the part where it was heavily implied Audrey had to go to the bathroom - and went off-camera - didn't bother her. In fact, she thought it added to the cute silliness.

The part where Lotta gave Audrey the flowers onward, however, was the part Mom thought would make Flaky scared, and where it was her cue to reassure her there was nothing to be afraid of. After Audrey smelled the flowers, they made her need to sneeze - and when Mom looked over at Flaky, she saw that she was covering her eyes and whimpering in fear. Mom placed her hand on Flaky's shoulder to comfort her, and Flaky quickly calmed down. The two of them heard Audrey's first and biggest sneeze, but Flaky didn't even wince.

And when she finally pulled her hands away from her eyes, the first thing she and Mom saw was Audrey giving three sneezes that were significantly smaller than the first, and then her rubbing her nose with her forefinger.

"Aaawww..." Flaky's mom said, the sparkles of adoration having returned to her eyes. She turned back to Flaky. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"No, it wasn't," Flaky replied. "Not with you watching it with me."

They resumed watching the episode, with Dot and Lotta blessing Audrey and giving her a tissue. It wasn't until she blew and wiped her nose that they at last realized that Audrey's hiccups had gone away. The three of them, along with Flaky's mother, were very happy, even though Lotta had to admit it was her idea the entire time.

Finally, the last exchange of the episode went underway.

"Nah, it's alright. Thanks for helping me out! ...Although that leaves one question."

"What's that?"

"Who would've thought that sneezing could cure hiccups?"

Dot and Lotta laughed as Audrey continued to wipe her nose, and at last, the episode ended. Flaky's mother couldn't help but laugh with them; she thought Audrey's final line of the episode was genuinely amusing.

"Oh, Flaky, that was a wonderful episode!" said Mom.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," Flaky replied. "Pretty much all my friends and I love seeing that episode. In fact, I heard there's a bunch of DVDs that have that one episode as a special feature, no matter what the DVD itself is about..."

Mom chuckled over the idea. "Well, I'm glad other people enjoy it, too. Thank you so much for showing it to me, Flaky."

"You're welcome, Mom."

Some time later, it was time for Flaky to go to bed. She went upstairs to the bathroom so she could wash up, and then headed into her bedroom. She stepped into her bed, and her mom came in to tuck her in.

"Good night, sweetie," said Mom. "I love you."

"I love you, too. Good night, Mom," replied Flaky.

Mom gave her a quick but warm kiss on the forehead, and then turned off the light, filling the room with darkness. Flaky watched her leave the room, then yawned quietly into her hand, and finally closed her eyes. Before an hour had gone by, she had gone to sleep. From that point onward, she could hear the chirping crickets outside.

Flaky couldn't wait to introduce her mother to her friends - she had a feeling that her life was going to be a lot easier from this day on out.


End file.
